Method and device for anchoring a hockey net to an ice surface

ABSTRACT

An anchor is installed in an ice surface for securing a hockey net. The anchor device comprises a plate having two different-sized spikes and a protrusion and a rubber peg. A larger diameter end of the hockey net poles is inserted onto the rubber peg and the hockey net is secured to ice but is able to be bent or dislodged when force from impact is applied.

This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) based onprovisional application No. 61/990,123, filed on May 8, 2014, which isincorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a hockey net anchor and method of use.

BACKGROUND ART

The anchoring of hockey nets is well known. A known method of providingan anchor to secure a hockey net to ice involves a single spike heavymetal peg. This known method of fixing the hockey net has a number ofdrawbacks. Firstly, the hockey net is easy to move when a force isimpacted. Secondly, the heavy and long metal stem keeps the net upright,increasing the risk of player injury.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is an anchor that is installed in an ice surface forsecuring a hockey net. The anchor device comprises a metal plate,preferably oval shaped, having two different-sized spikes. The plate hason a surface opposite the two different spikes a connector made of acombination of a metal peg and an elastic material such as a rubber peg.A larger diameter end of the hockey net poles is inserted onto themetal-rubber connector. The hockey net is secured to ice but able to bebent or dislodged when force from impact is applied.

More specifically, the hockey net anchor comprises a metal plate havingatop surface and a bottom surface and a protrusion extending from thetop surface. A pair of spaced apart metal spikes extend from the bottomsurface of the plate. A flexible member extends from the top surface ofthe metal plate and is attached to the protrusion, the flexible membersized to be inserted into a hollow post of a hockey net.

The flexible member can be made of solid rubber. For the two spikesextending from the bottom of the plate, one of the spaced apart metalspikes, which can be aligned with the protrusion and flexible member,can be larger than the other one.

The flexible member is preferably shaped into a cylinder to facilitateinserting into the hollow post of the hockey net. A bottom portion ofthe flexible member can extend outwardly to increase contact between atop surface of the bottom portion and an end of the post of a hockey netto enhance disengagement between the hockey net post and the flexiblemember.

The invention also includes a method of securing a hockey net to ice.The invention is an improvement over the prior art techniques in that apair of the anchor are used to secure the hockey net to the ice. In theinventive method, the two spaced apart metal spikes of each anchor arepushed into the ice so that the plate rest on the ice surface in thedesired location. Then, posts of a hockey net are mounted over the twoflexible members of the pair of anchors to set the net in place. If thenet is dislodged from the flexible members, the net is reattached to theflexible member. If the flexible member should break, another anchor isemployed to set the net.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a side view of one embodiment of the inventor hockey netanchor.

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the anchor of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of second embodiment of the anchor ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a side view of a third embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic showing a hockey net post mounted to the inventiveanchor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to improvements in or relating to the provisionof anchoring an ice hockey net to an ice surface. In particular, theinvention concerns a method of providing an anchor to the ice surface ina much safer and securer way than prior art techniques for hockeytraining and playing.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method ofinstalling a hockey net to the ice surface. The method includes thesteps of laying down the anchor in upright position on the ice surface,pushing down the anchor with the two spikes, inserting hockey net polesonto the anchor connector, and arranging the hockey net facing a desiredposition. The bottom of the net that connects to the post should restupon the plate in which the two spikes are connected, so that the netpost does not invade the playing ice surface. Of course, the anchorcould be first attached to the hockey net and then the anchor secured tothe ice surface.

In another aspect, the invention provides an anchor device including adual spike metal plate, the plate preferably being 4 inches long and 2½inches in diameter, with two metal spikes on the bottom. An erect rubberpeg, preferably 4″ tall and 1½ inch in diameter forms an insert,allowing for attachment of the peg to the hockey net post and fordislodgement of the peg from the post upon impact.

The rubber peg is preferably molded to the metal protrusion, but theattachment can be done in any known ways, fasteners, adhesives, or acombination of attaching techniques. The additional metal spike ispreferably about 2 inches from the spike aligned with the rubber peg.The length of the spikes is such that the spikes engage the ice and holdthe plate in place and allow the flexible member to give to release theanchor from the hockey net post.

The invention entails a method of installing a hockey net on icesurface, including the combination of metal peg and a rubber post. Themethod includes providing means to secure the metal peg to an icesurface. The metal surface that is against the ice uses two spikes toallow the net to remain secured when a skate is pushed against the postduring play. This allows for a stronger push from the goaltenders skate,decreasing the risk of dislodging the net from the desired location onthe ice. The two-spike system reduces unwanted stoppages in game play,involving the goaltenders normal goal defending movements.

The method also includes means to attach a hockey goal post to theanchor, this means constituting the rubber peg described above. Theattaching means permits the goal to release from the location on the icefrom impact above ice level, while increasing the amount of force neededto dislodge the goal with a skate.

The anchor device for installing hockey net can include the metal plateto have an oval shape and the plate would have two spikes to secure theplate to the ice. The flexible rubber peg on the top of the metal baseallows the goal posts to bend the rubber and slide off of the pegsduring contact, thus reducing the risk of injury upon player impact.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show one embodiment of the anchor of the invention, whichis designated by the reference numeral 10. The anchor includes a plate1, which is shown with an oval shape in FIG. 2, but the plate can bemade with any shape.

The plate has a lower surface 3 and an upper surface 5. Extending fromthe lower surface are two spikes 7 and 9. These spikes 7 and 9 aredesigned in length to engage the ice to assist in holding a hockey netin place. While any length could suffice that engages the ice to holdthe net in place, preferably the length is about 0.75 to 1.25 inches andmore preferably about an inch. While the spikes are preferably each thesame length, the two spikes could have different lengths if so desired.

Extending from the upper surface 5 of the plate 1 is another protrusion11, which acts as a mount for the flexible member 13. The flexiblemember 13 can be rubber and is molded to or otherwise secure to theprotrusion 11.

As described above, the spikes 7 and 9 are driven into ice to secure theplate 1 in place. Then, the hollow post of a hockey net is slid over theflexible member 13 to keep the hockey net 50, see FIG. 5, in place untilsufficient force is applied to the net to disengage the flexible member13 from the hollow post. The flexible member 13 could also break torelease the hockey net from the plate. The plate should rest beneath thenet so that both spikes are under the net and the footprint of the plateis basically under the net and not into a playing area on the ice.

FIG. 3 shows an alternative anchor 20, with a different shaped plate 21.The plate 21 is in the shape of an arrow to facilitate the placement ofthe plate 21 on the ice. The other features in terms of the flexiblemember and spikes are like that found in the anchor of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows yet another alternative anchor with a modified constructionfor the flexible member, protrusion, and attachment of the flexiblemember to the protrusion and plate. The anchor of FIG. 4 is designatedby the reference numeral 30 and it contains the two spikes 31 and 33 anda plate 34. The protrusion 35 is frustum like in shape, with the sidewall of the frustum being concave in shape and the flexible member 37 isshown mounted thereon. Of course, the protrusion could take on othershapes as long as the flexible member can be molded or attached to theprotrusion.

The flexible member could be formed with wing portions 39, which wouldenlarge the area of contact with bottom edge of a hockey net post toallow the post to be disengaged from the flexible member in an easierfashion. The flexible member, instead of being a solid construction,could include an opening 41 in the area closer to the protrusion thanthe top end 43 of the flexible member 37. Since the flexible membertends to bend just above the protrusion 35, the opening 41, which is ineffect, a hole in the flexible member, can facilitate the bendingprocess and make the disengagement of the post of the hockey net fromthe flexible member easier.

The metal plate of the anchor could be galvanized to enhance theattachment of the flexible member to the protrusion and can be made ofany material that would be strong enough to allow the spikes to pushinto an ice surface and secure the flexible member using the protrusion.The plate could even be a non-metallic material if strong enough. Thespikes and protrusion can be formed in any known way, for example and ifmetal, welded to the plate. The protrusion 11 and spike 7 could be thesame material such that the plate would have an opening that thecombined protrusion and spike would occupy and the combined protrusionand spike is then attached to the plate. The plate, spikes andprotrusion could be made as a one piece component by molding, casting orthe like as well.

As such, an invention has been disclosed in terms of preferredembodiments thereof which fulfills each and every one of the objects ofthe present invention as set forth above and provides a new and improvedway to secure a hockey net.

Of course, various changes, modifications and alterations from theteachings of the present invention may be contemplated by those skilledin the art without departing from the intended spirit and scope thereof.It is intended that the present invention only be limited by the termsof the appended claims.

I claim:
 1. A hockey net anchor comprising: a plate having a top surfaceand a bottom surface and a protrusion extending from the top surface, apair of spaced apart spikes extending from the bottom surface; aflexible member extending from the top surface of the plate and attachedto the protrusion, the flexible member sized to be inserted into ahollow post of a hockey net.
 2. The anchor of claim 1, wherein theflexible member is solid rubber.
 3. The anchor of claim 1, wherein oneof the spaced apart spikes is larger than the other one.
 4. The anchorof claim 1, wherein the flexible member has an outer cylindrical shape.5. The anchor of claim 4, wherein a bottom portion of the flexiblemember extends outwardly to increase contact between a top surface ofthe bottom portion and an end of the post of a hockey net to enhancedisengagement between the hockey net post and the flexible member. 6.The anchor of claim 1, wherein the plate, protrusion, and spaced-apartspikes are metal.
 7. In a method of securing a hockey net to ice, theimprovement comprising using a pair of the anchor of claim 1 to securethe hockey net to the ice.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the twospaced apart metal spikes of each anchor engage the ice and then postsof a hockey net are mounted over the two flexible members of the pair ofanchors or the posts of a hockey net are mounted over the two flexiblemembers of the pair of anchors and then the two spaced apart metalspikes of each anchor engage the ice.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinthe step of mounting of one or both of the posts of the hockey isrepeated if the one of both of the flexible members becomes dislodgedfrom a post.